dire consequences
by v-hills
Summary: It's the first Halloween since the Christmas Incident and Jack's sure this will be the most horrorful night ever since! Unfortunately his face is still in the minds of many people due to last Christmas and he soon finds himself running from the mortals...
1. Chapter 1

/ Author's note: Hello everyone, welcome to the very first chapter of the very first fanfiction I've ever written. I've had this story in mind now for quite some time and decided to let it out and see what happens. And even if I wished "the nightmare before christmas" would belong to me, it sadly doesn't. I'll stop the babbling now, enjoy and don't forget to review ;) /

* * *

'What happened? What happened to my Halloween?!' his eye-sockets widened in bewilderment while Jack stared at the mortal crowd below him. The chains lay heavy on his wrists, but he stood straight, trying not to show any weakness. The crowd screamed for revenge, for justice. They were almost cheering to the upcoming punishment. They hailed to some official who stood on his podest, ranting something about devilish creatures who deserve to be saved by the hand of god. He pointed out to the tied up skeleton and the crowd applaused in agreement. With a wave of the official's hand a soldier stepped behind the Pumpkin King and tossed him down onto his knees. The screams and shouts rang in Jack's skull. He closed his eyes in defeat and sighed.

'What happened to my Halloween…'

* * *

_Flashback_

The pumpkin-shaped sun rose high above Halloween Town, colouring the surroundings in warm autumn colours. The fog of the morning hadn't vanished yet, giving out a peaceful and mystic atmosphere. The peacefulness stopped by the gates of the town though. It was the day of All Hallows Eve and the town was busy with the last preperations. The voice of the Mayor could be heard all over the place, giving out hurried instructions on the top of his car.

Sally watched the scene from the window of Jack's tower and sighed.

"Can't you tell him to calm down?" she turned to her beloved skeleton, who sat at his desk, busily flipping through his notes.

"I'm telling him this every year, he wouldn't listen anyway," he mumbled, barely looking up from his notes. "Flying torches – check, fake treats – check, costume – what's the costume doing, darling?"

"I'm almost done," Sally answered, looking down at the brown fabric she held in her hands. "Do you really want to wear this?" she said with a frown.

"Well, sure, why shouldn't I? I couldn't think of any better outfit."

"What about going as yourself this year? You haven't done that for quite a while."

Jack leaned back into his chair, thoughtfully staring at the pumpkin he was going to wear in the evening. Sally stepped over and laid her hands onto his shoulders. "You're the Pumpkin King, you shouldn't be hiding your scary self behind a mask. You look much better without it anyway."

The Pumpkin King chuckled a little by this comment, closing his eyes and enjoying the touch of his precious girl. "you've got a point," he stated. Then he rose all of a sudden, grabbed Sally and whirled her around.

"Oh Sally, this Halloween will be the best Halloween ever! I think I've never been this excited before!" he stopped whirling Sally and turned to the window, watching the busy citizens, his eye-sockets widened with joy. Since that Christmas incident he felt all refreshed and new, his head filling up with new brilliant ideas every second.

Sally gave him a warm smile. 'The last Christmas surely pulled him out of his depression, ' she said to herself happily.

"What's with the costume?" she tried again.

"Forget the costume! The mortals should prepare theirselves to be confronted with the new Jack Skellington!" he emphasized the last sentence with the help of his limbs and gave out an evil laughter. Sally gave out a relieved sigh, throwing the scarecrow-outfit into the nearest corner.

* * *

The breaking of dawn came soon and the towns-people all gathered around the fountain of Halloween Town, fully prepared and eager for the upcoming night. When Jack and Sally arrived, everyone gave out cheerful shouts and made room for their Pumpkin King. Jack stepped onto the border of the fountain and bowed, a maniacal grin on his face.

"Are your ready for the scariest and most horrorful night ever since?!" he roared all over the place and was answered with the enthusiastic screaming and shouting of the citizens.

"Let's get going then, everyone! It's PARTYTIME!!" the pumpkin king gave out a terrifying laughter and jumped down the fountain, ready to chill some spines. The creatures of Halloween Town joined him with glee. Singing their very own Halloween song, they left for the mortal world.

* * *

/ Jack seems to be in great misery, but what brought him there? What is about to happen in the mortal world? Is it the mortal's turn to scare our beloved halloween-towners? Please review and stay tuned for the next chapter! /


	2. Chapter 2

/ Author's note: Yeah, the fun finally begins! "The Nightmare before Christmas" still doesn't belong to me though. /

* * *

Once arrived in the mortal world everyone swarmed out to do their business. Jack had sent them out with his usual last words: "FRIGHT and FUN, we scare, but we don't harm. Now go and do your very best, let me be proud of everyone of you!"

He stayed behind at the grave-yard they arrived first, together with some ghosts and the Wolfman. They checked their equipment one last time. Jack beamed in excitement.

"This will top everything we did before," the Wolfman howled in delight.

"This will be fun, this will be fun" the ghosts lilted

"They'll talk about for years to come!" Jack joined the song with a slight chuckle, emphasizing each word with his long, thin arms.

"'Cause our King Jack is finally back to make you crawl and shiver with respect"

"Watch out for me, 'cause when I come grown men will shrink and scream and run!"

With a joyful laughter they set off to their destinations, everyone taking another route to meet up again later that night.

* * *

Jack walked in the shadows of the suburban streets, making sure not to attract too much attention. He enjoyed the sight of the many children that ran around in their little costumes. Once in a while he slipped one of his fake-treats into the bags of the passing children – little marbles which were wrapped up in bright-orange paper. The marbles would poof into small smoke-clouds when unwrapped, forming into a spider or a bat before vanishing into the air. Just a little scare.  
He took a deep breath of the mild night air, asking himself how he was able to become tired of his very own holiday that last time. The surroundings were filled with shireks and laughter and there were Halloween-decorations all over the place. Amused parents watched their children while they ran from door to door. Jacks grin grew with every step – he simply loved the sight of those mortals. He loved it to scare those half-grown boys, who appeared to throw toilet paper onto the houses. He loved it to watch them panic and escape from him with fear in their eyes, swearing to never do something that stupid again.

The thin and happy skeleton turned to head out of the suburb and into the center of the city when a little boy accidentally bumped into him and fell back to the floor. His tiny white mask dropped next to Jack's bony feet. The slightly surprised Jack got down to his knees to lend a hand to the little boy.

"Oh my, this was rude from me to just stay in your way. I hope you haven't hurt yourself, little Dracula," he said with a smile.

The little boy stared at Jack's long fingers for a moment, then he took it and Jack helped him back onto his feet. Jack picked up the mask and handed it to the little vampire boy, noticing that the boy wouldn't let go of his bony hand. Little-Dracula looked at his mask, then turned up his head to face the skeleton itself. Jack's eye-sockets widened in surprise when he recognized the boy to be the first child he met last Christmas.

"Thank you, other Santa," the little boy mumbled and ran off, leaving the stunned Pumpkin King behind.

Little did Jack know that this little reunion would have consequences he would've never dreamed of. He didn't see the little boy how he ran back to his parents to tell them who he just met in excitement. He didn't see the scared and sorrowful faces of them as they faced the next police officer they could find. He didn't see the concerned face of the officer as he hurried back to his car to alarm the police-department. He just went on with a shrug, looking out for other people to give a little scare, still heading for the middle of the town.

* * *

Sally had stayed in Halloween Town with some other citizens, like Dr. Finkelstein and the corpse family. They were gathered around the witches' place, observing the actions of the mortal world. They saw the Vampire brothers, scaring teens on the graveyards, Boogie's boys (and girl), teasing the householders as mean Trick-or-Treaters – under the strict observation of Zero, so they wouldn't cause any further trouble – and the Street Band, entertaining the mortals with their horrible tunes. They gave a little cheer when their king came into sight who was obviously enjoying the night. He had finally arrived at the center of the town and mingled himself into the growing crowd of costumed and partying mortals. Everything went well.  
Sally couldn't help but feel a little awkward about the whole situation.

'What's this for a feeling that I have?' she asked herself, vacantly whipping her hair out of her face, 'Everything is alright and everyone has fun, so what's wrong?'

* * *

The huge market place was filled with the voices of people who had all gathered together to celebrate the biggest Halloween party given in the entire town. In the center stood a huge stage. A dj stood upon it with his music equipment, entertaining the crowd with the best of his halloween music mix. His music sounded loudly all over the place. Everyone was dancing, or singing along, almost shouting to hold up a proper conversation. The smell of junkfood and Halloween-sweets poured out of all the stands and tents. The nightly darkness had vanished because of the huge floodlights which lightened the whole scene with brightly moving colours.

'What a mess…this has nothing to do with Halloween anymore' Jack shook his head in slight disbelief. He watched the noisy surroundings and raised one of his not existant eyebrows. Then his view raised up to the rooftops of the houses that stood around the market. The ghosts were already there, waving down to him. He rose his hand up a little to let them know that he saw them. Turning around to the opposite side of the place he faced the Wolfman on the roof of the church. Everyone was settled and waited for him to give the signal. Jack struggled through the crowd to get to the town hall. Once he was there, the festivities could finally begin. A mischievous grin appeared upon his face as he thought about the act he was planning since the beginning of the year.  
He had almost reached the town hall when a sudden shiver went down his spine and his inner alarms began to ring. He stopped and turned around immediately, observing his surroundings with a curious look.

"What was that just now?" he asked himself, his voice being under the level of a whisper. He couldn't make out anything in that mass of people. Taking a deep breath he turned around again slowly and began to crawl up the wall, unseen from the crowd.

* * *

High above everything, on the top of the church, sat the Wolfman. He watched Jack how he climbed up the wall of the town hall and tightened the grip around the bottle he was holding. It was Sally's 'Fog Liquid' and he was supposed to pour some of it into the air when his leader gave the signal.

"Just a little sip, wolfman," Jack had told him at the grave-yard. "We only want to rise a spooky atmosphere, not letting them go blind."

"Alright, Jack!", he had growled, full of anticipation to the upcoming event. Now he could barely control himself. He couldn't wait until he was allowed to start the spectacle.

The head of the Wolfman rushed up a little as he sensed the smells of the other Halloween-Towners entering the place, but he avoided looking out for them. His eyes were pinned on the Pumpkin King, so he wouldn't miss the signal for the start.

And there it was! Jack had finally reached the top of the town hall and waved to the Wolfman who opened the bottle and let some of the liquid pour out. The fog extended and sank down to the people on the market place. Soon questioning voices could be heard all over the place.

Jack clicked his fingers once and the music vanished. The curiousity of the crowd raised.

Jack clicked his fingers twice and all lights went off. The whole place submerged into darkness, followed by the screaming and shrieking of the citizens which was soon cut off by a monstrous and enormous howl. Everyone was silent, paralized in shock and fear.

Sharp whispers pierced through the darkness.

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween"

"Halloween, Halloween"

"Halloween, Halloweeeen……."

High pitched child cackles rose from nowhere. Soon other voices joined, voices that sounded like they would come from death itself, sending shivers down the spine of every single citizen in the crowd. The laughters decreased and ebbed like waves, coming and going and coming up again, until the whole thing trickled away and left everyone in the darkness yet again.

Complete silence filled the place and the people started to wonder if it was finally over when the silence was suddenly teared apart from a long, bloodcurdling, terrifying scream which made grown men whimper in despair. No human in the world should be able to have enough breath to let out such a neverending scream.

The scream turned slowly into a high pitched chuckle and winded up again into an earsplitting laughter, making hearts run with fear and hands shiver.

When the laughter ebbed away finally, they came in: Hundreds of burning torches, floating from the rooftops right above the heads of the crowd, giving out a dim light to show all the pale faces of the citizens. They were followed by a flock of ghosts who rushed over the heads of the crowd without touching them, giving a frightening, yet fascinating sensation to their watchers.

Then an unexpected gunshot interrupted the spectacle. the torches stopped floating and fell onto the floor and even the ghosts stood still in midair, surprised by the sudden noise.

The Wolfman stared at his leader in shock, unintentionally holding his breath.

* * *

/ A gunshot? Who dares to shoot while a grand spectacle like this? What happened to Jack? Trouble waits right behind the corner, stay tuned for the next chapter (and don't forget to review)! /


	3. Chapter 3

/Author's note: A very warm welcome to chapter number 3! I was pretty fast, I'm almost proud of myself ;D. Special thanks to Star's Snowflake and Rebeca for reviewing, I guess reviews are the best food for fanfictioners. Cereals, anyone? Yeah, it's breakfast-time, but maybe you would like to continue reading…well well well, "the Nightmare before Christmas" still doesn't belong to me in any way, this story does though. Enjoy…

* * *

Jack held his breath. Slowly he looked down his chest to find a fresh little whole in his jacket where the bullet pierced through only seconds ago. If he were human he would've fallen to the floor, dead before his body would make contact. It certainly broke one of his ribs, for a numb ache began to rise, but he didn't care much.

The Pumpkin King jumped a little as the Wolfman landed next to him with a thud. A couple of claws grabbed him by the shoulders to check if the skeleton was alright.

"Oh Jack, oh Jack, you've been shot, you hurt?! Oh Jack-", the words spluttered out of the Wolfman's mouth with panic.

"Hey hey, I'm alright, calm down," Jack said, slowly recovering from the shock. "I'm just glad that I'm already dead."

"So do I...but who pulled the trigger? I can still smell the gunpowder…"

"I thought no one had seen me climbing up here, I really have no – Down!" Jack suddenly snapped, pushing the Wolfsman further down the roof to find himself blinded by a crude searchlight. He raised his arms over his eye-sockets to protect them, but it was too late. Since he had no eye-sight for the moment he could only hear the already panicking crowd break out in shouts of recognition.

"Holy crap, look over there!"

"This is HIM!"

"That monster from christmas came back?!"

Jack gazed down in disbelief as his eye-sight slowly returned to him. He became aware of the large group of police officers who now tried to evacuate the citizens.

"This is bad, really bad," he mumbled to himself with a troubled voice.

"What are we going to do?", the voice from the Wolfman appeared beneath him. Jack had managed to push him into the shadow of a chimney before the lights went on, so he was invisible to the humans underneath.

"We do nothing. You and the others have to return to Halloween Town immediately. It's not save anymore in this world."

"What'll happen to you?"

"I'll stay and try to work things out from here-"

"You can't do that on your own! You need to get away from here!"

"Surely not! If I try to get back to Halloween Town they'll find out about the portal. I'd bring our town and the other holiday worlds in danger."

"Then I'll stay with you!"

"No. I need you to take care of the others."

"But – "

"That – is – an – order." Jack said forcefully, not turning to face the Wolfsman for once.

The Wolfman lowered his head in defeat. Jack was the Pumpkin King, so he had to obey his orders. He began to back away when he stopped for a moment.

"I don't think the other's will listen to me." he said with grief.

"They will listen to their king." declared the Pumkin King as he rose to his full height. "Oh, and leave that fog liquid with me." he added before he took a deep breath.

* * *

The Halloween-towners were puzzled and scared. They tried not to get carried away from the escaping crowd of mortals.

"This is scary!" Lock said.

"The mortals went out of control." claimed Shock.

"It's no fun!" Barrel grumbled.

"Lock, Shock, Barrel, over here!" the voice of the Mayor shouted as he tried to gather the citizens together. His gloomy face looked up to Jack again, who didn't seem to move in any way.

"Jack, what are you doing?" he whined more to himself than to anyone else.

"We should go and help the ghosts" the voice of the clown with the tear-away-face appeared behind the Mayor, watching the police men aiming at the ghosts with their guns.

"They won't get harmed, they're ghosts anyway," the Mayor replied. "But Jack should back away from that searchlight!" He prepared to shout up to his king when he was interrupted by the devil himself.

"You better not shout over the whole place, you'll bring us all in danger!" he claimed.

"This is no good, no good at all." the Mayor whispered with panic in his voice. He looked around to see if he had everyone gathered now. The Wolfman was still missing. He tried to find him in the crowd, not listening to the loud shouts a police officer gave out to the Pumpkin King through a megaphone.

"You've been surrounded by police officers and the army will arrive every second. There's no way out, so stay calm and surrender!" the voice repeated again and again.

The Mayor heard something bark behind him and turned around to be faced by Zero. The two-faced man gave out a sigh of relief when he bent over to him.

"Zero, I'm so glad to see you here! Can you fly to your master and bring him to his senses? He needs to get down here, so we can discuss about what to do next!"

Zero nodded and just turned to his master when the deafening and terrifying voice of Jack Skellington filled the place and made it even tremble a little, shouting just one word:

"LEAVE!"

The frightened shrieks from the crowd grew louder as it began to panic yet again. Police men hurried all over the place as the skeleton disappeared into the night all of a sudden, leaving an empty lightspot on the roof.

"I think he meant us!" The saxophonist from the street band shouted, fighting against the high pitched screams from the crowd.

"But where?" the Mayor panicked yet again. "Leave the place, leave the town? Leave – "

"Leave this world." Someone growled.

"Wolfman! Where have you been?!"

"With Jack. And he wants us to return to Halloween Town in an instant."

"But what's with Jack?" Zeldaborn asked with a worried look on her face."

"Yeah, what's with Jack?" Helgamine joined.

"He'll follow soon." the Wolfman simply answered. "Come now, let's get going!" He waved at the ghosts who understood the hint and flew away into the night sky while the Halloween-citizens made their quiet escape to the grave-yard. Only Zero took the chance to sneak away and hurry to his beloved master.

* * *

Jack Skellington watched his friends leaving the place and sighed heavy with relief. 'One less thing I have to worry about.' He thought while he crepped into a dark side street. Sirens and the voices of police men could be heard everywhere. Jack leaned against a wall and allowed himself to rest a little. Lost in his thoughts, he rubbed his forehead with grief. He had no clue how he should fix this mess. The most perfect Halloween ever since was ruined, because of the Pumpkin King himself. At least he felt like that. He never thought that the Christmas incident would have consequences on his very own holiday. Zero appeared next to him, tipping at his skull with his shiny nose.

"Not now, Zero, down." Jack mumbled.

"Zero!" he then exclaimed before clutching his hand before his mouth to calm himself, finally noticing his dear companion.

"What are you doing here! You should've left with the others. Anyway, we have to get going!"

He rushed away, Zero following him at his feet, while the voices of the officers grew louder, concerned of the voice they just heard.

* * *

The left behind citizens of Halloween Town had watched the whole thing at the witches' house.

"This is so horrible!" Sally exclaimed fearfully.

"What are we supposed to do?" the corpse mother asked.

"We can't do anything I guess. He'll have to deal with it by himself." Dr. Finkelstein stated.

"But he's alone and they're…I don't know…100?"

"And he's the Pumpkin King."

Sally hid her face in her hands. "It's all my fault. I convinced him to not dress up this year!"

"Don't blame yourself." The bat kid said, petting Sally's back. "You could not have seen it coming."

"I'm afraid!", the corpse child whimpered and was comforted by his mother.

"At least Zero's with him." Sally said, wiping away a lonely tear. "I hope they'll make it home…"

* * *

Will the fact that he is the Pumpkin King save Jack from the mortals? How is he supposed to set things straight? Or will he even get help from someone completely unexpected…? You'll see that soon :D (review, review, review!!)


	4. Chapter 4

/Author's note: Welcome back at_"dire consequences" _and thanks for your patience and thanks for the review, Star's Snowflake, means pretty much to me hands out virtual cookie. What? Want one too? Review! x) "The nightmare before christmas" does still not belong to me. The other character's do though. 11 days to Halloween, I can't wait! On with the story.

* * *

Jack did quite well so far. He sneaked through the streets, making sure to stay out of the light and to avoid crowded places. The last thing turned out to be a pretty hard task, for everyone who was at the market place before was now roaming through the whole town, wether to get to their homes as fast as possible or to help the police catch that "furious ghoul" before it would catch them. Jack had to keep himself from smacking his forehead several times when he happened to hear what those mortals were thinking about him.

"Did you see it's eyes? They were..just not there!"

"You are one to talk, it had red lights in it's sockets, for sure, those were devilish stares I tell you!"

"And huge it was, as huge as a street lantern!"

"And it's army of ghosts – scaary, I say…"

"Oh c'mon, didn't you see how they fled from the cops? Totally harmless."

"Are you sure it wasn't just a mean trick from the youth of the town…?"

"It came to take Christmas and now it wants Halloween? Seems like it hates holidays…"

"But what about the other holidays we had this year? Take…easter, for example…"

"Skeleton? I think it looked more like Godzilla…!"

'Godzilla? Well, who might that be…' Jack wondered about the last comment he caught, but he had to focus on more important things, like the question, just how he would be able to come out of all this.

After a long, but unfruitful period of pondering he decided to shove this problem to the farthest spot in his skull and focused on staying in hiding. He soon found a most suitable camouflage for himself as he borrowed the old clothing from a scarecrow and a jack-o'-lantern from a front garden in the suburbs.

"Forgive me, Sally, but I have to hide my good looks for a little while," he muttered to himself while he threw away the candle of the lantern and shoved the pumpkin over his skull.

Now that he looked like every other dressed up mortal in this town he was able to move more freely. He decided to give his new costume a shot and walked right into a group of dressed up mortals. No screamings this time, no recognition – to them he was nothing more than one of their own in a funny scare-crow-costume. Jack grinned brightly under his mask about his newest success. Now he was able to head back home without anyone following him. He took off to the grave-yard immediately and even a skip could be seen in his step, his dear friend Zero following him in the shadows.

* * *

While Jack had just begun his way home Halloween Town had already welcomed the rest of it's citizens who returned from a chaotic night. Those who stayed with Sally now left the witches' house to join their fellows, since their king seemed to be out of trouble. Sally wouldn't move though. Not until she would see Jack leave the mortal's world. She rubbed her hands together nervously as she watched her beloved skeleton through the waterscape that gave her insight to the actions in the other world.

"Only a few blocks further to the grave-yard and then I can head to our grave-yard to welcome him," the rag-doll said in order to calm herself down.

Outside the Halloween-Towners gathered in the Town Hall to discuss what went wrong this evening and to wait for the return of the Pumpkin King.

"Will Jack be alright?" asked one of the Vampire brothers.

"We just saw him at the witches' place, he's on his way home.", Dr. Finkelstein assured. The Town Hall let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"Yes, this is our Jack!" cheered the Mayor, before his head spinned around to reveal his worried face once more. "I'd normally hold a speech now about how scary and terrifying this halloween had been…"

"Well, it was terrifying! In a bad way."

"The mortals scared the crap out of me…"

"Next year will be better."

"When we start planning now it should get more terrifying than every Halloween we had before!" the Mayor's head spinned back to his cheerful face while the Town Hall was filled with joyful shouts again.

Sally gave out an irritated look to the Town Hall as she passed by.

'They're going back to normal a little too fast for my taste' she thought while she hurried down the streets out of Halloween Town.

As Sally had just witnessed, Jack had entered the grave-yard and finally left the mortal's world. He now sat at the graveyard of Halloween Town, rested his head against the Mausoleum through which he returned seconds ago and heaved a heavy sigh.

"We made it, Zero," he patted his ghostly dog's head who gave out an agreeing bark. "This could've ended much worse."

"Jack?" the called skeleton looked up to find Sally at the other end of the grave-yard, searching for him. He smiled and jumped back to his feet.

"Jack, are you here? Say something!"

"Sally!" Jack exclaimed happily as he hurried to his beloved rag-doll, embracing her tightly.

"It's so good to see you, my dear, my love, my little Sally!"

"You'll crush me if you go on like that!"

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Sally chuckled as they let go of each other. "You know, I'm not sure what my boyfriend would say to this…"

"Excuse me?"

"Well…me alone with a handsome scare-crow?"

"Huh?...Oh! How could I forget?!" Jack quickly took off the pumpkin he was still wearing and revealed a sheepish grin. Hand in hand they made their way back into town, a happy Zero flying around them and barking joyfully.

* * *

At the same time, but a completely different place, a fist was clenched onto a desk in slight fury.

"Just how hard can it be to find a monster?! It doesn't look that normal at all!" snapped the owner of the fist.

"Well, sir, it's Halloween. There are a lot of monsters out there this night."

The owner of the fist gave out an annoyed growl, now rubbing his fist to lower the pain he caused by himself.

"When will the company arrive?" he asked.

"They should arrive in the next 10 to 15 minutes, Mayor."

"Alright, thanks officer." The Mayor said with a tired look on his face and ordered the officer to get lost.

It was his second period as Mayor now and he had thought that Christmas Incident was the last supernatural problem he had to deal with. How wrong he was! As if the upcoming election wasn't enough trouble for him. His opponent was _Radley Harris_, a tall and handsome politician with his everlasting confident smirk. _Radley Harris_ truly disgusted him.

The Mayor was quite the opposite of _Radley Harris_. With his 65 inches he was pretty small and due to many failed diets he was quite corpulent, too. But while _Radley Harris _had this official and stern look in his grey eyes the Mayor was more like the friendly guy next door with a warm smile and big, honest brown eyes. And he was very proud of this image.

'I am much better than this _Radley Harris_. They'll vote for the nice guy, not this cocky old man! I am _Mayor_ Arthur Tom and I will stay _Mayor_ Arthur Tom!' Mayor Tom exclaimed in his mind, not realizing, that he even stood up with this thought and clenched his fist onto the table yet again.

"Ouch." He whispered and sat down again, glad he was alone in his room.

He leaned back into his chair and rubbed his forehead with grief. 'What a night', he said to himself while loosening his red tie a bit more. He could lie in his bed now, cuddled into his warm blanket and having sweet dreams. On the other side this was his chance to get the attention of the citizens once more, so they would vote for him a second time at the next election. A determined look appeared on his face as he whipped some loosen grey hairstrands out of his face. This _Radley Harris_ was a strong opponent, but if he caught this demon, he would definitely win. Yes, he would catch that demon and it would be a great show.

* * *

The demon could care less at the moment; he just arrived at the Town Hall with Sally and was almost ran over by his own Mayor who hugged the skeleton's legs because of a lack of height.

"Welcome home, Jack!" he exclaimed happily while Jack clinged on Sally to not loose his balance. He then was drowned by his concerned comrades in cheers and hugs, so that Sally finally had to give in and everyone fell to the floor. The Pumpkin King managed to crawl out of the mob and rescued Sally out of it as well. They looked down at the huddle when the head of the Mayor shot out of it, looking around hectically.

"Jack?"

"Right here, Mayor."

"Right where? Oh! Hi Jack!"

Jack and Sally looked at each other with stunned faces, then back to the huddle and finally cracked up by the ridiculous sight.

Still chuckling, Jack went up to the podium while the Halloween-Towners got up and back to their seats again, now waiting for one of the infamous speeches of their king. Jack looked down at his citizens and cleared his throat a few times to get rid of the chuckles.

"Ahem, sorry, everyone, I….couldn't help it." He said with a tired smile on his face, wiping away the tears from laughing. "Well, what a night!" Jack watched his comrades nod and murmur in agreement and continued.

"I'm glad to see you all in good health! I apologize for this mess – "

"No need to apologize, Jack!" the Wolfman assured.

"Why, thank you. Even if this night ended up in a disaster, I must say that I'm proud of every single one here in this room. You all made a brilliant job and stayed calm when chaos broke into the whole event. And Wolfman, I know you don't want to hear it, but I'm sorry that I've been rude to you at the roof."

"You're right, I don't want to hear it." The Wolfman agreed with a grin.

"All that is left to say now is thank you all! And I'm sure we will do much better next year on…..Halloween…" Jack grew quiet when a thought stroke his skull. The citizens didn't notice it though, they were already hailing to their king, breaking out in wild applause as the Pumpkin King drew back from the podest and behind the curtains.

Jack's hands rose up to his skull in realization. They would remember this day. They would remember him and they would be prepared. Prepared to really hunt him down, the demon, the Christmas- and now Halloween-destroying monster. Returning to the mortal's world next year would be dangerous, too dangerous. What should he do now? Cancel Halloween? He'd destroy the entire town if he did this. And he'd destroy himself. His hands lowered again and formed into fists as he finally came to a conclusion.

"Jack? What's wrong?" Sally's worried voice appeared as she stepped close to him.

"Sally," Jack looked up, a stern look on his face. "I have to go back."

* * *

/What?! Return to that mess? What's Jack up to? Will Mayor Tom get his great show in the end? Be patient, the next chapter will follow soon.

And I feel the urge to apologize for that godzilla-pun, I couldn't help it. Same goes with Mayor Tom. Both don't belong to me though. The unexpected person didn't fit into this chapter very well, so I left him out. He'll have his entrance soon. Bye, and don't forget to review, I'm a little unsure about this chapter ;D


	5. Chapter 5

/Author's note: Forgive me! I've let you wait long enough I guess and I'm really sorry for this delay. Busy days for poor v-hills~. Well, I hope you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you'll enjoy this one as well. I love you all for reading and reviewing! And we all enjoy "the nightmare before christmas", don't we? And you surely know that it doesn't belong to me. The other characters do though~. Have fun….

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack was cought by surprise – and by Sally's right hand which truly made a rude contact with his left cheek. He turned his skull to face Sally again with a puzzled stare, just to see that she was as puzzled as him.

"Eh – Sally…?!" he stuttered, carefully rubbing his cheek.

"Ah, sorry Jack, I didn't want to….no wait, I won't apologize! Jack Skellington, what on earth are you thinking?!" yelled Sally as she regained her composure again.

The skeleton had never heard her yell before and he decided that it was scaring him somehow. And he was the so called 'Master of Fright'. Jack shook his head to get focused to the situation again.

"Sally, I –"

"No."

"But –"

"Nuh-uh!"

Instead of another try the Pumpkin King heaved a heavy sigh and decided to just look at his precious rag-doll and wait. It was the longest minute he had in his whole afterlife while they stood there and simply stared at each other.

Sally spoke finally, but this time she didn't yell. She sounded more like a hurt child. Jack decided that this was even worse.

"I can't let you go."

"Forgive me, but I have to."

"Why? Ah, no, I don't want to hear it…" Sally lowered her head with grief. She knew he had a reason to go, but as long as he didn't say it she saw the chance that she could be able to prevent it in the end.

Jack walked up to her and held her by her shoulders which caused Sally to look up again. Her sorrowful eyes met his sad, but determined looking eye-sockets.

"I have to take responsibility for what happened on Christmas and for what happened tonight. If I don't go now to set things straight, there will be no Halloween next year and the years after that and the afterlifes of every single soul in this town will loose their meaning. I'm their king, I can't let that happen. Do you understand?"

After a few moments of silence Sally finally looked aside in defeat.

"Yes…" She mumbled.

"Now now, I's not like I'm going to die out there."

"It's still dangerous enough. I'm worried, that's all."

"I know, but you shouldn't worry. You'll get crinkles."

"Stop joking with me, Jack."

"I'm sorry."

"You won't let me come with you, right?"

"Yeah, that's right"

"What are you planning to do in the mortal world, anyway?"

"Not sure, yet…"

"Oh Jack, you can't just run back without any concept! You need to make a plan before you go."

"Yes, Mayor~."

Jack gave Sally one of his typical grins before he embraced her with his long, thin arms. Sally hid her face in his chest and took a deep breath. Jack's embraces always calmed her down. She felt save and warm in his arms, even if it was hard to believe that a skeleton could give any warmth at all. Well, she knew it better than anyone. After a little while Sally broke up the embrace.

"Be careful, Jack." she said and got a kiss to her forehead in return. He smiled at her sheepishly before he hurried out of the Town Hall. Sally waited until she couldn't hear Jacks footsteps anymore, then she ran off to the witches' place again.

Jack slowed down his steps when the grave-yard came into sight, now pondering what he would do when he arrived in the mortal world. He got to the grave-yard and was still pondering. When he stopped at the mausoleum which would lead him to his destination he –still – was totally clueless. The skeleton picked up the pumpkin which he left there a while ago and shoved it over his skull again. Then, finally, the answer came into his mind, as if the candle in the pumpkin just lit up inside his very own head. Jack wasn't sure if he liked it, but it was the only way to get started. With this thought in his mind the Pumpkin King opened the mausoleum's door energetically and vanished into it's depths.

A small shilouette paced back and forth in front of the gates of Greenville's largest grave-yard. It was the shilouette of a small, middle-aged man who seemed to be pretty nervous or impatient, maybe even both.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That stupid Greg, leaving me alone in the dark. 'Ill be back in a minute, Fred.' Yeah sure." the man mumbled angrily while he corrected the position of his thick glasses. The man named Fred disliked Halloween, he truly did. He disliked autumn as well. He disliked dark, chilly nights. And more than everything else he hated working in the field on a dark, chilly Halloween-night in case of searching a real Halloween-monster and being left alone by his partner who happened to live right next to a creepy grave-yard.

'Oh how much I hate it. I want to go back to my office and bury myself into my files.' he whined to himself and whined even more when he heard the church clock stroke two. He so wanted to go home and forget about everything, but he knew this was impossibe.

A sudden sound made Fred jump in surprise. It sounded like stone fell onto stone and it sounded as if it would come right from the creepy grave-yard.

"Who – who's there? Greg, is that you? Not funny, man!" he stuttered insecurely, raising his bat a little with his shivering hands. Fred turned on his pocket light and looked around. Nothing to see, nothing to hear. He heaved a heavy sigh, lowering his bat again and turned around, only to jump again with a little shriek when he was faced by a large, thin scare-crow.

"Oh, forgive me, I didn't mean to scare you, officer, sir." the scare-crow said in an apologetic tone.

Fred stared at the scare-crow for a moment, then cleared his throat several times to get back his composure.

"Uhm, good evening, sir. Don't worry, you didn't scare me at all." He said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

"Busy night, huh?" the scare-crow said, slightly tilting his pumpkin-head to the side and crossing his arms.

"Truly is. I'm not hunting down monsters in the middle of the night that often, you know?" the officer said and chuckled a little.

"Oh, I wouldn't call him a monster," the scare-crow replied.

"Is that so? what would you call it then? A ghoul? Demon?"

"Nothing like that~. I'd say he is a nice and handsome skeleton who is being hunted because of a misunderstanding."

"Excuse me?" Fred was slightly puzzled by that answer.

"What would you say if the so called monster didn't intend to harm anyone on Christmas, or this night?"

"I'd laugh. You didn't see that thing, did you?"

"Oh, I did, more often than you can imagine."

The small officer looked up to the scare-crow suspiciously. Something was definitely wrong with this person.

"Put down the pumpkin and identify yourself, please." He said in his official tone.

"As you wish, but I ask you to stay calm." The scare-crow said as he rose his hands up to the pumpkin and revealed his head – which turned out to be nothing more but a skull.

"You! D-don't move!" exclaimed the panicking Fred as he fell back to the ground and crawled away from the skeleton.

"Please, officer –"

"Don't move I said! I – err – I have a bat and I'll use it!"

"Now now, I don't intend to harm you or anyone else."

"Haha! Don't make me laugh, filthy demon!"

"Oh my, I'm not a demon. My name is Jack Skellington, nice to meet you."

"NOT nice to meet you!" Fred yelled in fear and took a few steps back as the skeleton began to move towards him. Jack Skellington stopped immediately and sighed.

"I –"

"I warn you, my partner will be back soon and he has a bat AND a gun…"

"– surrender."

"…and he will beat the crap outta – what?!" the officer stuttered with a puzzled look on his face.

"I surrender." the skeleton raised his hands to show that he meant it.

"That's a trick, right?"

"No trick. If I wanted to harm you I would've done it already."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Do you have a choice? What sounds better? Telling your partner that you were too scared to catch the demon the whole town is searching for or being the police officer who was brave enough to take in the monster and be cheered by everyone?"

Fred had to confess that the second option sounded much better than the first. All his co-workers knew him as the weakling from the office and catching this skeleton would definitely push his image quite a bit. Maybe he would even receive a mention for bravery! With this thoughts in mind he took his handcuffs and carefully came up to his fearsome enemy.

Jack stood still, trying not to look too scary. The first step was done. He had no idea how the other steps would look like though, but he knew that this police officer looked really frightened and if every human would react the way this man did – he surely didn't want to think about this now. He stretched his arms into the officer's direction, so he could handcuff him and watched him taking a step back in surprise, then continuing to walk towards him. Finally the handcuffs fastened with a small click.

"Alright. Uhm…what to do now?" Fred asked insecurely.

"You are the officer, you should know." Jack replied surprised.

"That's right…but I usually don't take in criminals, I'm working in the office…"

"I'm not a criminal, you know."

"No, I don't. You attacked us on Christmas and tonight. You surely are a criminal, err…."

"Call me Jack."

"Okay….um…Jack."

"What's your name?"

"Oh, uh, I'm Fred. Fred Larkins."

"Well, good evening, Fred Larkins." Jack smiled down to the officer. He could tell that Fred finally calmed down and was really glad about it.

Fred sighed.

"Well, I guess we have to wait for Greg, before we can move anywhere. He has the keys for our car."

"Greg?"

"My partner."

"Oh, you mean the one with the gun."

"Heheh, yes…"

"Alright~. Let's wait." Jack said, sat down onto the ground, leaning back against the grave-yard's wall and bid Fred to sit next to him.

Fred followed the hint in an instant. 'He's quite nice for a monster' he thought to his own surprise as he sat down with a small sigh.

* * *

/And so they wait. Just like you will be doing if you're wanting to read on which I truly hope. Will Fred and Jack get along well? How will Greg react when he finds this strange couple? Will Jack really get arrested? Or even worse…? And what if Halloween-Town's finest trick-or-treaters begin to meddle? We'll see it soon…..

PS: 4 days until Halloween and I can't wait~! I'll be going as a rag-doll, what will you be? ;D


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: my apologies, my deepest apologies for letting you wait almost an eternety. I kind of lost motivation, and when it decided to come back to me, my harddrive decided to leave me and my already written new chapter as well. I hope you can still follow the story. The nightmare before christmas is not mine, though I really hoped it was.  


* * *

**

„You're quite nice for a monster!" Gregory Jones exclaimed happily as he sat between Jack and Fred, enjoying a sandwich and energy drink he had brought from his flat. Jack simply laughed at that while Fred could only stare and shake his head in disbelief at his partner. Gregory Jones had arrived only 5 minutes before and was already chitchatting with their 'captive'. Just how was this possible? He knew that his haggard friend loved halloween and everything scary, but this just went too smooth, didn't it?

"Why do you give me that look, huh?"

"—What? Err, I'm not giving any look."

"Sure you did, didn't he, Jack Skellington?"

"He surely did, Gregory Jones."

"Stop doing that!" Fred demanded while getting to his feet again. "Yes, this skeleton has manners and yes, I do kind of like him, BUT he still is the demon who ruined last christmas and we are to turn him in, no matter what!"

Gregory answered him with one of his famous strange looks which Fred wanted to immediately throw bricks at. They stared at each other for a moment until Fred finally gave in.

"Come on, Jones, you know we have to." He stammered.

"Yes, I know." Gregory said.

"Then why are you still sitting there?"

"You'll see." With that, Gregory turned to face the Pumpkin King, offering him the same strange look he gave to Fred. Jack tilted his head a little while he studied his opposite's face.

"I don't know why, but somehow I feel the slight urge to throw something at your face. No offense though."

"None taken~. I trained this face a lot, good to know it actually works. I have a nephew, you know."

"Oh, well, this is nice. Children are lovely."

"You don't eat them, by any chance?" Fred threw in.

Jack stared at him. "Uhm, no?"

"I see, just a thought." Fred replied hastily and grew silent again.

"So you have a nephew, yes, Gregory Jones?" Jack turned back to Greg.

"Yeah, he's a cute one. Especially tonight. He does make a really cute dracula tonight."

"I bet he looks terrifiyingly adorable in his vampire … costume …" Jack fell silent, sticken by a sudden thought. A grin broke out in his opposite's face.

"Yeah, you got it~." Gregory chirped at Jack's dumbfounded face.

* * *

In Halloween Town ragdoll Sally stood by the waterscape at the witch's place and heaved a heavy sigh. She observed her dearest Skeleton as he sat with two mortals, seemingly officers, one rather small with short brown hair and thick rimmed glasses and the other one tall and haggard, with dark blonde curls falling loosely onto his forehead. They didn't seem scared, or angry at all which relieved Sally a little. 'At least he isn't in trouble … well, not yet' she said to herself.

She could only wonder about what he was going to do next, and hope that he knew what he was doing. He had this bad habit not to think things through before acting. Though this was one of the many things she loved about him so much, she now wished to be with him in the mortal's world, so she could prevent him from doing something stupid. But she decided to stay, watching from above, because from where she was she was able to see things that could possibly slip her attention when she would be with him right then and there. And so she stood, barely moving, not turning her gaze from the waterscape once.

* * *

"Let me see if I got that right: Your nephew- " Fred pointed out at Greg "- met you at the christmas-incident – " now he was pointing at Jack "And you met him again this very evening. Little Tommy then told his parents about it, who reported it to the police and after that called you -" pointing back at Greg " – and you paid them a short visit in which little Tommy told you everything about him, meeting the second Santa?"

"Yes." Greg affirmed.

"Pretty much." Jack said.

"That's just too much." Fred sighed.

They sat still for a moment, everyone sipping at their ted bull energy drinks. Again Fred was the one to speak up.

"So, you didn't want to ruin christmas, right?"

"No, not at all." Jack answered calmly.

"But you do know that everyone here thinks you did, right?"

"Yes, I do."

"And you do know that everyone here wants you, well, dead, right?"

"Now, no need to be rude" Greg interferred.

"That's okay, he is right. Though I am already dead." Replied Jack.

"So, what are you planning anyway? Just why did you 'surrender'?"

Jack didn't answer right away. He narrowed his eyes to the floor, rubbing his chin absentmindedly as he thought. The officers exchanged quick, concerned glances, waiting for the Skeleton to answer. Finally the Pumpkin King looked up again, letting a little sigh escape his mouth, before it turned up into a sheepish grin.

"I think I want to get killed."

Fred choked on his ted bull at this comment while Greg burst out in laughter.

"Excuse me?!" Fred exclaimed between coughs. Greg was still laughing.

"Well, let me explain." Jack began when both laughter and coughs had ceased. "My plan is to surrender to the mortal's, so I can get a chance to talk to them and explain what I did and why, and to apologize for the mess I caused last christmas, hoping they will forgive me. I will reveal myself to be the Pumpkin King and try to convince them that I do no harm, nor does anyone of Halloween Town, so that we can continue bringing you little scares on Halloween without being hunted. But since I'm not entirely sure if you mortals will even listen to me, the filthy demon which eats children, I'm pretty sure I will be slaughtered before I even get the chance to explain myself. Thus I want to get killed."

"You've got a point there. The 'mortals' truly are a little hysterical right now." Greg said, a serious look on this face.

"Yeah, your plan sounds quite dangerous." Fred agreed. "Don't you think it would be easier to remove the handcuffs and go back to your own world? We would pretend to never have seen you and no one would ever find out, right, Greg?"

"We could do that" said Greg.

"Oh, I already did that. I escaped as every other citizen of Halloween Town did tonight. But you must know that our town lives only for Halloween and not being able to fullfill our, well, destiny … it would destroy us. Thus I came back. I had to, for the sake of the ones I care for."

Fred stared at the skeleton who was gazing at the floor again, sorrow mirrored in his eye sockets. This man – Skeleton – was willing to give his very life – well, existence – for his friends. This was truly amazing.

"Alright then!" Greg suddenly exclaimed and made Fred jump in surprise "Let's go then, we have a doomed skeleton to deliver!" With that said, he jumped smoothly to his feet, gathering the two big paperbags with his sandwiches. "Oh, Jack, could you please take the ted bulls for me?" Jack looked up to his new compaignon with a slightly dumbfoundes look, then began to grin brightly and get up as well, swiftly grabbing the sixpack of ted bulls. This night was going to be rough, but at least he didn't have to do it all alone.

* * *

It wasn't long after they left when a sudden sound disturbed the chilling silence. It sounded like stone fell onto stone and it sounded as if it would come right from the creepy grave-yard. A soft cackling rang unheard through the darkness, leaving no evidence at what had entered the mortal's world right in this moment.

* * *

**author's note: something arrived! What it is? You'll see that in the next chapter~. I do hope jack will get out of there alive and well … but who knows, what cruel things will happen further on …(review, pretty please?)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: SORRY! sorry it's so late and sorry it's so short. thank you for all the reviews and your kindness, and i beg you to stay patient and kind with me, because i have the feeling that the more i write, the worse my writing gets ... i need some input :]. thank you and enjoy~.**

The streets were quite empty for a halloween-party-night. Only the bravest of citizens and the careless ones remained outside. Thus it wasn't hard for the newly set trio to make their way into the center where the police station resided. No one took greater interest in the average police car. Thanks to Gregory's and Fred's choice of employment they even got through every road barrier the police set up, without being examined any further. Jack had disguised himself as Scarecrow again as a precaution. The tension that had built up at the beginning of their drive began to cease with every road barrier they passed. Gregory finally broke the silence.

"… Two police officers and a scarecrow, sittin' in a car …" he mumbled thoughtfully.

"Wow, you're quite the observer." Frank sat in a monotonous voice.

"Bup bup bup, I'm trying to make up my very own joke."

"And I'd love to kick you for this if you weren't the driving one! We have more important things to worry about, like, how we manage not to get Jack killed –"

Jack raised a hand, but didn't get the chance to say anything, because Fred simply continued with "I know you already are! but you get the point!" Jack's Hand fell again.

After a little silence Greg spoke up again, a dramatic tune swinging with his voice.

"I have a plan. It's crazy and risky, but I've got a feeling that it could be just crazy enough to work."

"Oh my god." Fred said.

"You know, my sister teaches biology at greenville-high –"

"Oh. My. GOD!"

"What?!"

"Come on! This will never work out!"

"So you think! But I have a very good friend at the theater as well!

"I don't believe this …" Fred sighed, while throwing his head into his palms.

Jack bent forward from the backseat. "Call me stupid if you like, but what exactly are you talking about?"

"Only about the lamest excuse of a plan I've ever heard of." Fred murmured.

* * *

The night was quiet. The first doorbell rang. Somewhere in the suburbs of the town, a child opened the door. It was greeted by three voices.

"Trick or Treat!"

* * *

After two more stops the set of three became a set of four. The sight of it was quite … ridiculous.

"… Two officers, a scarecrow AND a skeleton, sittin' in a car …"

Fred only facepalmed. Jack still fidgeted around at the fake skeleton they picked up at Greenville-High, dressed with a costume from the theater-supply of Gregory's buddy, Theo. The plan was simple. Get Jack arrested, let him tell his story, replace him with Hugo (it was the name of the fake skeleton), before they could actually execute him or what else came to their mind. The plan was, like the sight, ridiculous. Ridiculously enough to work? Fred wasn't sure. Gregory and Jack had their fun, though.

"One of the officers asks the other: 'Hey you, how can we tell if they're male or female?' –'Well, the scarecrow is female and the skeleton is male.' –'Why so?' 'Because the scarecrow has a candle in her head, the skeleton nothing!"

Jack frowned while straightening Hugo's bowtie. "Gregory, I don't think it's too funny …and I actually have a brain."

"C'mon buddy, you know I didn't mean it. And it WAS funny! In a waaaahhh …."

"Now what does that mean?" Jack stared at the dumbfounded expressions of his new friends, than looked forward and gasped. "Ahhhh… This actually scares me …"

They had finally arrived at the police station, but they didn't expect to see any of what lay in front of them. They didn't expect the place to be that crowded. They didn't expect it to be a mass of what seemed to be soldiers. With artillery. Heavy artillery. They didn't expect tanks at all. Hugo's jaw-bone loosened and fell onto the seat, as if on cue. Gregory, again, was the first to speak.

"Well, I didn't expect the mortals to be THAT hysteric …"

* * *

Somewhere in the suburbs of the town, a child opened the door. It was greeted by four voices.

"Trick or Treat!"

**A/N: Please don't forget the review ;]**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: trying to get the story back into the right mood. i know it's short, but i'm not having that much time~. bear with me ... :]. please review, i need it! thank you for reading!**

Somewhere in the suburbs of the town, a child opened the door. It was greeted by five voices.

"Trick or Treat!"

* * *

Fred ruffled through his own hair, still pale from the fast pull-back Gregory did with the car. They were now standing in a little side street, engine turned off, and were rather clueless about what to do next.

"That was crazy!" Greg whispered.

"Where do all of those even COME from?" Fred whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Jack said.

"Uhm, to raise the tension?"

"Sure, as if we'd need THAT, Greg." Fred hissed. Greg simply overheard the last sentence and continued with a frown on his face.

"Aaanyway! Why would someone call the army to a town as small as Greenville?"

"Well, there is a demon doing major damage to it."

"I'm not!"

"We know that! But they don't!"

"Major? That's it! The mayor!" Fred's face lit up with sudden realization.

"The mayor?"

"The election is next week! And what would be better for positive publicity than catching the Christmas Monster?"

"My gosh, you're right!"

They heard the back door open and quickly turned around.

"Jack! Where do you think you're going?!"

Jack sat back to face his new made companions.

"I'm going to see your mayor." He stated calmly.

"Just like that? Are you insane?!" Fred barked.

"Are you sure you haven't lost your brain somewhere on the way?" Gregory gave him one of this looks you immediately wanted to throw bricks at. Jack sighed and simply smiled at this.

"Yes, and yes. I'm grateful for everything you two have done for me and I really appreciate it, but I don't want to drag you into this any further. Besides, the plan we had really wasn't our best."

"But we can make a new one!" Gregory whined.

"How do you even want to get to the mayor? Do you even know where he is?" Fred threw his hands up desperately.

"Oh, yes, I forgot about that. Where is he?"

"Most likely in his office at the town-hall, but this is not the point – Jack, would you please wait?!" Fred grabbed the leaving Pumpkin King's Jacket and tried to pull back, only to find himself dragged out of the car and only inches away from Jack's face. Stunned by the strength and fast movement of the skeleton he just looked into his narrowed eye sockets while Gregory jumped out with a bewildered expression written on his face. When Jack began to speak, his voice was barely more than a whisper and a serious tone rang in it.

"Listen closely, I've already put Halloween Town in danger, I'm not going to do that to any more of my friends. I'm the Pumpkin King for a reason, so please, trust me with this and let me go. Alright?"

Jack sat Fred back down to the ground again carefully and turned around to leave, when Gregory called him back. Jack turned around, his face questioning.

"Be careful." Fred told him.

"Thanks for the great time, dude." Gregory said with a wink.

A huge grin spread upon Jack's face. "See you later!" he said and vanished in the shadows.

Fred sighed. "There he goes …"

* * *

Somewhere in the suburbs of the town, a child opened the door. It was greeted by six voices.

"Trick or Treat!"

* * *

Ragdoll Sally became more and more nervous by the minute. The masses of soldiers had really put her on edge. How should her beloved Jack get through this in one piece? She wanted to help, to be on his side oh so much, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get through to him all by herself. She could ask the wolfman to accompany her, but she knew that Jack wouldn't want that either. He wouldn't want them to put themselves in danger to help him. But wasn't he doing just the same? How was she supposed to sit still while he was risking his very being to save them all? How could she just stand here and watch without knowing that her biggest love was save? And all this only because he wanted to bring joy to the people on Christmas. Christmas? That was the idea! She took a last glance at the waterscape and ran off, her hair flying in the wind.

* * *

Somewhere in the suburbs of the town, a child opened the door. It was greeted by seven voices.

"Trick or Treat!"

**A/N: reviews, anyone?^^ Thank you for reading~.**


End file.
